Pates

Jeez the second year player had an off night, stop the presses!! Was bound to happen and I’m not surprised it was against the Swans. They have a knack of putting certain players off their game, still had to important involvements even if he wasn’t his electric self.

Brayshaw was very poor (from what I saw in the second half) and was off last week as well. But aside from that I think he’s owned the second wing role quite well, Langdon is our playmaker winger whereas Brayshaw is the winger that slots into positions to provide the extra number. I totally agree that his disposal v Swans was disgusting (and costly at times) but he’s a cog in the engine. I’m backing him to get back to his early season form.

I think there will be some sore bodies this week and while Trac is a unit he is human. I think he might be given a week to recover from his nasty corkie. Sparrow has to be first in line to come in, he was BOG for me in the VFL last week. Our midfield depth gets tested if Trac is given a week to recover. Aside from that, no change.

The debate over TMac to defence has to end now. Petty wasn’t amazing but Gawn gave him praise in the post match interview with Fox Footy, they seem to think he can do the job. But Tom’s form up front is just too good, and we don’t know what we’d get from Weid. It was an ugly game, actually very reminiscent of the Cairns game last year but the difference is we were up for a scrap and just did what we needed to do. It’s not going to go down as a classic but getting a tight win as well shows some metal. Stood up to the challenge when it mattered. Shout out to Spargypants for that big goal, summed it up very quickly and executed brilliantly. Tommy stood tall, been a while since we’ve seen a Melbourne take a pack mark like that. May showed why he should be AA, Buddy who? Jackson continues to amazing me. That said tip of the cap to Hickey in the ruck, seems to always play well against Melbourne. I haven’t seen the first half yet so I’ve got that to look forward to, but interested to know the consensus on Brown’s game. Looked very slow at the end. He kicked 3 goals so how much more do you ask for from a FF? Anyway, 8-0 is just....mind blowing! ?

How much of a muppet is Luke Darcy? “Could this be the match winner?” There’s 7 and a half minutes to go!!!

Brayshaw is having a really dirty night, that was a massive out of the full.

I mean so many great tackles unrewarded, and that scrap gets rewarded to Buddy.

That Swans fan ???? Great goal Tommy!

I think to be fair if they did an anonymous poll of the coaches it would very likely be in favour of the “don’t like it” category. It’s one of those things that I don’t think the AFL expected fans to miss, but it’s part of the ritual of the week of footy. They should have done this poll before the season to make this call. And if they bring it back and clubs refuse to cooperate, just fine them.

I think on the Hotter Than Hell VHS the narrator was stamping his ticket as future star (though I found a lot of what that guy said to be cringey).

Damn that’s really tough on the likes of Weid who are trying to smash the door down. I’d like to see the club make Sam and emergency in that case to make it clear that he is on the cusp.

There will be a time this year when we play both Brown and Weid in the same team and I hope they work well together, I think the make up of what we’re seeing now won’t be what we have going into round 22. When they do play together this will be the time that the club gets around Sam and says the Brown is the now but he’s the future. Ultimately he will want to be playing senior footy week in week out, so if we can’t offer that then I suspect another club will poach him.

If we didn’t have May I’d be worried. The thing I’m more worried about is that Sydney seem to play the wider grounds better than their home of the SCG. Our pressure has to be at elite from the opening bounce, can’t afford a slow start this week.

I thought the exact same thing. I think Wiz’s looked more spectacular because he started on half back and just had a clear path to keep running, then pulled off a barrel that skidded through. Definite parallels to that great goal though, and ultimately his work rate will be what the coaches praise the most.

Blimey I don't think I was paying close enough attention to all the takeover stuff! I must've left before all of that, though I definitely noticed topics would get derailed by agendas and feuds between members. Sounds like the chaos mimicked the fractures at the club at the time!

(Maybe another smart cookie can put this in properly) His first and second goal in footy love the strut on the second! https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZflNkA6ksxs

Haha yep like you I was originally on 'ology then found my way here. I initially liked it because it did seem a little more grass roots, but 'land took over pretty quickly when I realised there were a lot wider ranging opinions here (EDIT: plus it was actually simply a better site!). Demonology had it's use for me though, used it to be able to get in touch with the passionate Dees fan who used to do the Mohawk for a University Documentary. Blimey that was 13 years ago!

Problem is Doc now would be the time that you'd expect him to be showing what he can do, but he's being kept out of the side by the form of TMac. I think he's shown in patches he's more than capable of being a good forward, he could've (should've) had a couple of bags last year, and is playing consistent footy in the VFL (albeit against lesser opposition). So now (for his development) is the best time to get him in there to get him to show us what he's got to offer.

I keep having to clarify I’m saying this from London but I really can’t believe some of the extreme measures put on the players, explains our lacklustre start and full credit to North who were able to cope better with it. I can’t work out why it isn’t just as easy to go into a hotel and just stay in there the whole time aside from going to/from the venue.

Agreed regarding Salem and Fritta. I would have Lever, May, Max, Langdon, Trac, and Oliver. Yes he’s missed a couple of games, I think he had a quiet against North, what was the other one?

That’s what I’m picturing, sounds harsh but I think the coaches are waiting for him to have a poor game or two as a forward and make the move. We could also move Gus out of his wing role and into a medium HF/mid Viney style role, as has been suggested in the changes thread. Main thing is that when he comes in we have to get the balance right, I’m not sure the Sydney game is the one to tinker with things. I typically don’t look further than one week ahead but the Carlton game might be the better call to throw some magnets around.

Or he could change his listed name for a week to James Haymes! ?

I understand the calls to move Gus into the guts to take over Viney’s role but I think people underestimate how important Gus has been in the wing role this year. He’s been playing a bit of a sacrificial team role (something I’ve heard Goody say about a number of players) and this has allowed Langdon to continue his upward trajectory. I’m picturing Harmes will come in for Jones (keep him as medical sub) to take on the Viney HF pressure/mid role, Sparrow will come in for Baker, and Petty in for Tommo. I can see how it might makes sense to some to send Tom to the wing role, and Gus into the guts, but both have taken ownership of the roles they’ve played so far this year. I’m very loathed to change much of our winning formula.

5 years ago we could never have predicted we’d be in this bizarrely good situation, but as much as I love TMac and fully recognise he’s back in really good form, he’s ended up being the wildcard here that has created this abundance of key forwards. Jackson’s development as well has been better than what I think would’ve been predicted, it means we have plenty of talls but not enough spaces to play them. Personally I thought Weid deserved to be promoted over Brown against the Kanags, I recognise that BBB was our big coup but Sam had better form and I think playing him over Brown would’ve really shown how much we rated him. I would like us find a way we can hold onto him but realistically that would take one of TMac or Brown getting injured (knock on wood won’t happen!) or not performing for a period of a couple of weeks. Or Petty not performing in defence, forcing us to swing Tom back there.

Very true Swans are a lot more capable of kicking a winning score than the Hawks. I would hope that Goody and Co would’ve said to him that being dropped for May is no reflection on his game. Should he come in now you would imagine he will be in there for a while.